Exploring Life & Business with Vivien Schapera of Alexander Technique of Cincinnati, FourWinds Academy, CrystalHealingTechniques.com

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vivien Schapera.

Vivien, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa and when I met my husband, Neil, he told me that he wanted to emigrate to the USA. This seemed like a fine idea to me, the only problem was that it is not that easy to get a green card. While we were trying to figure out a way, I received many calls from Johannesburg asking for the name of an Alexander Teacher there.

As it happens, at that time, there were no Alexander Technique teachers in Johannesburg. The Alexander Technique is a method for retraining posture, movement and behavior via thinking. It is a hands on method, generally done one-on-one. The teacher literally gives the student a new experience of the self by guiding movements and explaining how to think, and what to think, in order to generate this effect. There were so many calls that we decided to go to Johannesburg for two weeks, to fulfill on these numerous requests. While we were in Johannesburg, I had a vision that beckoned us to Cincinnati, OH and that is how our path was inspired. It took us a few years to go through all the applications and paperwork, but eventually we did arrive in Cincinnati.

I rebuilt my practice as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, and additionally we opened a school for training Alexander Teachers. One day I thought: “Look at all this space, and look at all this equipment. We should have another training option in this space — a school for training Energy Healing practitioners. I was already giving Saturday afternoon workshops and so it became a matter of expanding such offerings into courses. In 1998 FourWinds Academy for the Healing Arts & Sciences was born.

During that time, I also became interested in crystals and crystal healing and added that to the services that I offer. When I trained with Melody, it turned out that my method of working with crystals was not a standard method, but something new. I followed up with 25 years of research to develop a new modality called Crystal Surgery. I wrote and published a textbook called The Complete Guide to Crystal Surgery in 2020, just as the pandemic closed our doors.

Not to be deterred, I took my work online, offering remote sessions. Although it was tough, the adaptation turned out to be a good thing, because instead of teaching locally, I taught nationally and internationally using zoom. Consequently, there are now Crystal Surgery practitioners in every English-speaking country and I know that people in Japan, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, South America, and central America have purchased the textbook — so this is gratifying.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As I already indicated it was not a smooth road. It is very difficult to get a green card, so that was a massive obstacle. Once we were here, it was straightforward for me to build a practice. In fact, colleagues asked me how I had done this as many people in alternative professions struggle with building a business due to the lack of mainstream support. For example, if you become a physical therapist, you can get employment, and you can get referrals because you are part of a recognized system.. But if you are an Alexander Teacher, you have to make a name and reputation for yourself. Consequently, by request, I wrote my first book How to Establish and Maintain a Strong Client Base in 1996 laying out what I had learned. Last year, 2025, I wrote an updated version to include the huge changes wrought in business-building by the internet, social media and AI.

FourWinds Academy was incorporated as a 501(c)3, and that was not a smooth road either, mainly because of all the red tape. Other than that, there were no work struggles, just the usual ups and downs of life.

I think it would be very appropriate to say that we were warmly welcomed by the people of Cincinnati, and have really enjoyed building two regional communities and then an international one.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Alexander Technique of Cincinnati, FourWinds Academy, CrystalHealingTechniques.com?
We have four different businesses: Alexander Technique of Cincinnati for teaching the Alexander Technique, FourWinds Academy for training Energy Healers, Personal Touch Stones for selling healing crystals, CrystalHealingTechniques.com for courses, classes and information about Crystal Healing and Crystal Surgery and FourWinds Academy for training Energy Healers.

My specialty in my private practice is that I help my clients to develop their potential. Mostly people begin sessions because they either have some kind of physical pain or some kind of unease in their lives. We follow a path from feeling dysfunctional to functional and from there we transition to becoming super-functional. Most importantly, I gauge the effectiveness of my work by whether my clients are becoming happier.

As an author, I write “How to” books and my brand is to offer what only I can do. If another writer can write the content, there is no need for me to do that. I have written 5 books so far: How to Establish and Maintain a Strong Client Base, 3rd edition (2025), Everyday Magic (2002), Kindle edition (2020), How to Lose Weight and Gain Money (2004), and The Complete Guide to Crystal Sur(gery (2020).

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I am a big risk taker as my philosophy is “nothing ventured nothing gained.” To be clear, I am not an extreme sports fan, and I distinguish very, very carefully between “risk” and “danger.” Risk means to me that it may not work out. Danger means to me that if it doesn’t work out, there could be grave loss, damage or injury.

My entire career path has been built on risk. To begin with, I invested all the money we had in going to London, England to finish my training as an Alexander Teacher. This is a little-known profession, with little recognition and there was no guarantee it could deliver a viable way to earn a living. In fact, for most people it does not. I next took the risk of leaving my thriving private practice in Cape Town, where I had a huge and growing network, and moving to Cincinnati, OH where I knew two people. We then took the risk of opening a training facility for Alexander Teachers, later expanding to opening a training facility for Energy Healers. In addition to all that, I sunk huge amounts of time into writing books for tiny, niche markets where I had to actually cultivate the target audience.

Indeed, I would say I have boulder-hopped from one risky venture to another, and I have enjoyed every minute!

Pricing:

• Private Session, 1 hour $190
• Alexander Technique Lesson, 45 minutes $155

Contact Info:

• Website: https://CrystalHealingTechniques.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@crystalsurgeryandcrystalhe1735